Jim Smith is a developmental biologist renowned for his work on cell-to-cell signalling in the early development of the amphibian embryo. He is an Emeritus Scientist at the Francis Crick Institute, and he has served as President of the Zoological Society of London since 2002. He has been an Honorary Fellow of the College since 2009.
Jim was an undergraduate at Christ’s from 1973 to 1976, studying Natural Sciences before going on to do research at Middlesex Hospital Medical School for which he was awarded his PhD in 1979. He went on to hold postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) before joining the National Institute for Medical Research in 1984, where he became Head of Developmental Biology in 1991 and Head of the Genes and Cellular Controls Group in 1996.
From 2001 to 2008 he was a Fellow of Christ’s whilst holding roles in the University including the John Humphrey Plummer Professorship of Developmental Biology and Chairman of the Wellcome Trust/CRUK Gurdon Institute. Jim returned to the Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research as Director in 2009 and became Deputy CEO and Chief of Strategy for the MRC in 2014. He became Director of Research of the Francis Crick Institute in 2015, was Visiting Group Leader from 2016 until 2021, and has been Emeritus Scientist since 2022. He was Director of Science with the Wellcome Trust for most of the period 2016 to 2021 (taking on the role of Director of the Science Review 2019-20, leading the development of the Wellcome’s new strategy).
Jim’s distinguished career in scientific research has resulted in him being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998; and being awarded the Waddington Medal of the British Society for Developmental Biology in 2013. He received a knighthood for services to medical research and science education in 2017.
Photo credit: MRC National Institute for Medical Research